by Patti Connor
Staff Writer
The phrase return to work can sometimes be a bit misleading.
“I know I’ve never worked harder than I did during the time I was at home,” said Mary Lou Prendergast, a trust officer with First Guaranty Bank & Trust Company who recently rejoined the workforce after spending 11 years as a housewife.
“My kids are both in school until 3 o’clock, and I was running out of things to do,” she said. She’s the mother of two girls, Katie, 10, and Emily, 7.
A native of Chicago, Prendergast moved to Jacksonville in 1988 to take a job in the trust department of Barnett Bank, which was then purchased by NationsBank. She worked in trust services until 1990 in the dual capacities of corporate trust officer and employee benefits trust officer. Her job today is far different.
“Now,” said Prendergast, who works in business development for investment counseling and trust services, “I basically work with small businesses and the affluent on trust administration.”
The only trust department in Jacksonville that is locally owned and operated, the bank has slightly more than 100 employees. Three of its trust officers boast an average tenure of 18 years. “So, obviously,” she said, “it’s a very stable staff.”
With monies from each trust managed individually as opposed to being managed in a lump sum, the bank’s niche market encompasses trusts from $500,000, up to $3 million.
“It’s gotten to the point where people may have a substantial amount of money, but unless they have a trust of more than $2 or $3 million, they’re actually being turned away by the larger banks who don’t want them,” said Prendergast, adding that’s where First Guaranty “has a real opportunity to grow its business.”
She also sees that as being the primary area where First Guaranty, and other banks of its approximate same size, have an increasing edge over the larger institutions.
“The big banks have gotten so impersonal. Just trying to get through to a human being, is a nightmare,” she said. “As much as I hate to say it, in a lot of ways I think they have lost touch with the people. That’s why it’s good when people such as myself, who have worked with a large bank, can come in and tell them what a good job they’re doing.”
If in fact the bigger banking institutions are treating their customers as just a number, perhaps the fact that a number of their employees are leaving them for the smaller ones “that are more like family,” will make them take notice.
Said Prendergast: “Looking at the problems bigger companies are having certainly made me look twice.”
Married to Michael, an attorney with Coffman, Coleman, Andrews and Grogan, the couple recently completed construction of their new house in Avondale and plan to move in at the end of the month. Although most of her time away from work is spent transporting her two girls to and fro, Prendergast admits to a love of travel.
“I love Europe, especially. I spent my junior year in college in Rome, and that was wonderful,” she said.
When it comes to flying, she admits to some trepidation.
“Recently, we took a trip to Las Vegas,” she said. “Since we flew from Jacksonville, to Cincinnati, to Vegas, I’m happy to say that I didn’t read the article [about airport security concerns in Jacksonville and Cincinnati] until I was back home on the ground.”